I am back and healthy again.
The past 10 days I have been fighting bronchitis, ugh….but I’m well now and ready.

I want to first thank Redrob41 for working on the new Drayen.

I’m going to hold off on the VOs till I have a large collection plus I learned a few more techniques to aid in the production and diversify the voices.

I will be posting 3 items today:

First will be some pics of the game as well as a New Feature and a Developers Blog: The beginning…

Pics:

http://img195.imageshack.us/i/k200022.jpg/
This is a pic of the Jedi Temple- the computer there will allow you to access the Galactic news and Galactic history. This is for those who want to get some back ground info on the present and past events in the Galaxy for no point just for background.

What is the Trust System? The Trust system will be a system built to work along with the Influence system from kotor2. Before I can get into the details I have to explain how it came to be.

In kotor2 the PC would influence his/her party members due to the Exile’s natural bonding ability and some of it due to a side effect of Malachor V. When looking at the system for RoR I found it hard to believe that the PC a regular Jedi could influence so strongly people which he/her will travel with which would change their alignment and their belief system. Beliefs which we all have can be shaken but usually there needs to be erosion. To be able to create such a shift in a party member’s alignment/belief system the PC would have to gain the Trust of the party member.

The PC will start with a level of trust with each party member in the game. The level of trust can be checked by looking at the journal entry related to the party member. You can either gain or loss trust in action events or conversation events. When the PC has gain enough trust from a party member it will unlock a bonus and ability to now shift the party member toward the PC’s alignment. The problem is that you will not be able to get everyone’s trust level to the point to open all bonuses since certain party members do not see eye to eye in their beliefs, morals, or how they view certain issues. The way you play your PC will affect which party members you will gain trust with and who you will not. This will not be a matter of wither you killed someone or let some one live but more in the motives and actions done to solve quests and your interactions with other NPCs in the game.

Later in RoR there will be a critical point(s) where there will be a moment where the party member will make a choice in changing their beliefs or reinforcing them depending on the amount of Trust and the PC’s alignment compared to the party member's. This will be toward the end of the final game.

In the Demo you will get to see how this system works.

For example Uldir who is military man and loyal to Corellia and the Republic- his belief system will not look so kindly at for example enslaving a singer to Vogga the Hutt. You would end up losing Trust points from Uldir if you did this act or something that would break major Republic or moral laws.

Another Example is Cain who has a belief system of ends justifies the means if it’s for the greater good. Cain might not be bothered by the enslaving the singer if it is to gain favor with Vogga which will aid you on your main quest. Cain is about the end game and making yourself powerful in position to make events happen as you want them too when you want it too.

The Developer Blog will be posted in a few don’t want to double post……

I wanted to do this for awhile. I feel now is a good time to give everyone a view into the production of Revenge of Revan as it was conceived and also the decision on how the game is started.

When I creating this plot/story I first had to deal with Revan and what his/her (depending if you are talking cannon or not) personality and what happen to the Former Jedi and Sith lord. I did months of research and looking for clues in the first game as to build her personality. Revan is neither Sith nor Jedi…just Revan. I knew early on I wanted to allow the player to choose Revan’s gender and alignment at the end of kotor1. With this I had to figure out Bastila and what happened to her during this time. This lead to a short story of her time looking for Revan if Revan was Sith at the end of kotor1. I wanted to have Bastila in the game since she is such a major part of Revan’s story due to kotor1. Once those details were ironed out what happen to him after kotor1 and where was he during kotor2….. it was onto the next major issue...…the over all story /plot.

When writing the story I looked at a few major things, location/planets, original story that can stand on its own without kotor1 and kotor2, and to have a feel of this bring together the other two games as a trilogy.

Certain planets were chosen for story components and the fact that I will be re-skinning existing modules from kotor2. This may have cut down the selection a bit but it also allowed me to keep from flopping from one planet choice to another which would have dragged on the story development.

The story started off with a base mood/tone and outline which over time changed due to redeveloping ideas. The background story helps anchor my plot down and kept it from becoming to swishy-washy. This allowed me to keep the plot and story focus. I will go into the story development in more detail in another developer’s blog.

Starting the game off-first module…

The first idea was to have the PC and Master Drayen on the space station that gets destroyed in the opening movie. They will survive and land on Corellia where the Jedi Council will ask you to investigate. This allowed a more of a kotor1 beginning where there is an action scene from the beginning to get the player pumped. The only problem is it would hurt the story development since it has a more of a block buster summer movie feel. You would be a Jedi but you would not know the conflicts of the Jedi and I felt with the large gap between RoR and kotor2 that players will want to know what it means to be a Jedi at this time. The final result was the space station being destroyed in the opening movie and after it would transition to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant where you can talk to other Jedi and padawans. This will allow you to immerse the player in the Jedi’s world and see what events are causing issues within the Jedi Order. The first hour to hour and half (only a small part of it on Coruscant) will be setting up events and emotional triggers for the rest of the game. Once you hit this point this is when the real adventure starts. I look forward to sharing Revenge of Revan with you…….

Sorry to hear about your bronchitis Logan. Anyway, this trust system sounds like it's going to be a bitch to implement.... especially since you're going to need 100 journal entries per NPC with trust (Assuming a percentage scale) but good luck with it, I like the idea of both trust and influence as opposed to just influence.

Beautiful looking screenies too... I hope to have B4D4 and the other droid (can never remember his name) explained.

But, you know, I think I like the idea of the station exploding with you on it more than just as an intro .bnk

Anyway, Glad to see more progress as I slide in between being on LF and not.

Sorry to hear about your bronchitis Logan. Anyway, this trust system sounds like it's going to be a bitch to implement.... especially since you're going to need 100 journal entries per NPC with trust (Assuming a percentage scale) but good luck with it, I like the idea of both trust and influence as opposed to just influence.

Thanks,
The Trust system is already built and you will be glad to know there are not 100 journal entries per party member- they are on a scale of 5s or 10s depending on the balancing of system.

Alright. That makes a lot of sense.... you'd think I'd be able to figure that one out.

Oh, just thought of something, are you going to use negatives? Like: 100% means that I would believe you if you said it was raining and it was dry. and -100% means that I wouldn't believe that it was raining if you told me and I was getting wet.

I think that Logan is planning on a scale from zero upto 100%, without any negatives (although, I could be wrong and it may be a 10% to 100% scale). Most party members will start with about a 20% to 40% trust (depends on their personality). Of course, this could all change after beta-testing.

Logan23 since your replcing almost everything and adding some really awesome things why don't you ask Drewton for you to use his TSLMIM(The Sith Lords Major Improvement Mod) for your Revenge of Revan.You see it would really add the feeling that this is the official KOTOR 3.Here's the link for his TSLMIM: http://lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=196622

I like the red one the best, looks less like a simple Paint retexture than any of the other ones. Though, truth be told, I'm not too hip on these Kiffar tattoos anyway... :s

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spadille

I love the Kiffar race, it's my favorite one ! *crosses fingers for possibility of playing Kiffar in TOR*
Any chance for releases of other heads with the tattoos but other patterns?
And the screens look AWESOME!!

Yeah, I'm kinda in the middle when it comes to the Kiffar tattoos. They work really well in the comics, because they help bring some individuality and recognizability to some characters that might otherwise be drawn too similarily. But, on the other hand, when trying to add the tats to a more realistic skin texture for the game, it just looks overly saturated, and like FN said: "a simple paint retexture". I thought the red looked pretty good, because it didn't stand out so much, but then I started thinking that it looked like a sunburn .

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord of Hunger

I personally think the green is the best. The red lacks enough red and the yellow is a bit too simple IMO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by logan23

I'm very flexible with the the tattoo. I just don't want anything to that will take away from him being that wise Jedi feel.

I love the new Drayen and tattoos. I'm leaning to the first one green, i wonder how the others would look with a green tone?
I don't why i keep steering toward green,lol

I figure that green ties in with his lightsaber: green = good . So, I changed all the tats to green and added a bunch. Most are similar to something I saw in a Republic comic (or two), but I played around with a few new ones as well. The trick will be choosing one that doesn't distract from the character's personality or Jedi wisdom, and does not look like Sith tattoos. Let me know which is your favourite, and why

Yeah, I'm kinda in the middle when it comes to the Kiffar tattoos. They work really well in the comics, because they help bring some individuality and recognizability to some characters that might otherwise be drawn too similarily. But, on the other hand, when trying to add the tats to a more realistic skin texture for the game, it just looks overly saturated, and like FN said: "a simple paint retexture". I thought the red looked pretty good, because it didn't stand out so much, but then I started thinking that it looked like a sunburn :¬:.

I figure that green ties in with his lightsaber: green = good . So, I changed all the tats to green and added a bunch. Most are similar to something I saw in a Republic comic (or two), but I played around with a few new ones as well. The trick will be choosing one that doesn't distract from the character's personality or Jedi wisdom, and does not look like Sith tattoos. Let me know which is your favourite, and why

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wow this is what I was looking for!!! The beard could've been a little longer for my concern but the model is great! I personally like the 1st and last facepaint best 'cause I think it matches the character and his race best....

do you have tut on how you added the long hair to the character or how to change the hair at all? or a link to one that already exists?

Just thought of something... you realize how painful that would be to have tattooed? OUCH!

These guy's have a very high pain tolerance!

Yeah, I was talking with a friend at work about tattoos. He said most people would avoid getting the area around the eyes done (maybe stopping around the orbital bone of the eye socket). I looked online, and found a lot of people getting fake eyes tattooed onto their eyelids (I guess so they could sleep at work, and still look awake), and I even saw one nut getting the whites of his eyeballs tattooed blue! That's gotta hurt (or he's using some good anesthetic )!

Still, this being Star Wars, they probably have some kind of advanced, sub dermal, pain free spray gun that blows the pigment directly under the skin (without a needle). Plus the Kiffar seem to do this to their toddlers (and I thought kids cry hard when they get immunized).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darth Darkus

do you have tut on how you added the long hair to the character or how to change the hair at all? or a link to one that already exists?

Actually, I used the Dopak head model so that I could get the pony tail. Then in gmax I moved the model's verticies around to alter the beard (instead of the goatee). Then I used Taina's Replacer tool (there are plenty of tut's if you use the search feature) to convert the ascii model.

Well, it seems pretty clear that everyone (who has posted their opinion) seems to like the first two and the last two options. I was chatting with Logan, and we both agree which ones (that we think) are the strongest two: the top row, left side; & the last row, right side. One is a continuation of Logan's original concept sketch, and the other is a new one that I came up with. What they have in common, is that they don't cover any of Drayen's facial wrinkles, so it keeps his air of wisdom intact, and his personality will show through (especially around the eyes). At the same time, they're both in the Kiffar style, and avoid Sith style tats.

To help us decide, I've made a few in-game screenies:

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Sorry about using such a wide picture. I guess I'm spoiled by my 24" iMac .

There is no "Kiffar" style, as the children are tattooed at birth, using the same tattoo style as their mother's side. (except in the case of Quinlon's son. Because the mom wasn't a Kiffar, the son took on Quinlon's tattoos.) So if Drayen's mom had tattoos like that, then he would have the same tattoo style on his face.

There is no "Kiffar" style, as the children are tattooed at birth, using the same tattoo style as their mother's side. (except in the case of Quinlon's son. Because the mom wasn't a Kiffar, the son took on Quinlon's tattoos.) So if Drayen's mom had tattoos like that, then he would have the same tattoo style on his face.

Good point. I guess when I said "Kiffar style", I was thinking of the monochromatic, large blocky areas with some stripes type tats that seem to be common to most of the Kiffu Guardians (as seen primarily in the Republic comics). The only Kiffars I've seen that have a different style tat, are Sintas Vel & her daughter Ailyn Vel. A couple of other Guardians have pointy areas (like Droo Rawk & Teph).

The big thing, of course, is to avoid tribal styles (jagged, cutting, blade like lines), since they seem to be used by the Sith.

Cain's is just the in-game Sith outfit, but at least you can see how I've modified his head model (less plump ).

In contrast, Quan's outfit is the Sith assassin model, but re-skinned to be Jedi colours (neutral earth tones), with a bit of padded body armour (inspired by Kiffu Guardians and Quinlan Vos). I've made a new symbol for the shoulders, since he is not a member of Clan Vos.

I really wanted these two to be visual opposites of each other. Even their eyes are different (Quan's green vs Cain's red). I think it's funny though, that they both part their hair the same way .

well, I was working on a new head for Dagos Nimablu this weekend. I also made a quick set of clothing for him. I was just looking at it before posting, and thought "it's too dark for him and his light skin." Let me know what you think.

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I've just got to do some underwear for him (and also some for Quan Drayen), and then he's done.